♦ ♦ 23rd Contract - Voice/Video/Action

[mortemscintilla]

[ He's spent the days following Yin's departure from the City on stand-by. Still working. Still heading out on excursions Underground. Still going about his little routines, smiling as 'Li', chatting and cheerful. Bubble-encased. But he has certain other routines, even in the midst of all the usual tasks. Times he thinks about Yin and times he doesn't let himself think about her, because the most important thing of all is to keep his eyes on the straight and narrow, to keep going. That's what he's always done. Except the longer he keeps the pretense up, the more acutely he's aware of something venomous boiling up his skin, in his mind. ]

[ Something that threatens to explode into a firework of cold shrapnel. ]

[ And by the time the curse rolls around, his restraint hangs by the thinnest thread. ]

Well-played, City. [ Li's voice, but with a disquieting bite. It only lasts a moment. The next words are perfectly neutral, ] I guess this is the part where I say: 'Show me yours and I'll show you mine.' Although not exactly in that order.

[ re: If you have his photos, hand them over, and he'll hand over yours. No bullshit, no drama. ]

[ This doesn't have to get ugly. ]

[ OOC: Hei's pictures are floating around the City, and up for grabs. Please approach with caution. Mr. Assassin is cranky as hell with the exit of Yin, his BFF Loli Teammate friend from the City, and this curse is not helping xDD Also I apologize in advance for slow tags; it's craycray season at school. Backtags are encouraged and adored<3 ]

Comments

action / video for Hei's little spybugs

[anatural]

[She's jealous.

Crap.

She went out to train this morning (on her own, at a reasonable hour because Jinora is still pissed off at her and won't train her) and got hit with a torrent of pictures. Now she's curled up on her bed, browsing through them. Hei and a girl. Hei and a girl. Hei and a girl.

It's stupid. She doesn't have any reason to be jealous. It's not like she likes him that much. Tohru's gone. Jinora hates her. She doesn't have the emotional energy to waste feeling like this.

ARGH. She sets the pictures on her nightstand, buries her head under her pillow, and screams.]

1/2

[mortemscintilla]

[ When he sees the video-feed -- recognizes the pictures -- a judder of what he'd like to call dread but which is really rage runs through him. Watching Korra shuffle through them, the heat rises to his face -- they seem stalkerish, perfectly-framed yet intrusive shots of him and Pai in Heaven's War, of Amber bidding him goodbye in Hell's Gate, of Amber and he in some summery scenery he's neither visited, nor recognizes. Even as that photo sends his mind scrambling to assemble possibilities -- maybe Amber's alive? maybe it's a shot of them in the distant future? -- Hei can imagine himself tearing all the photos into little bits and setting them on fire. ]

[ (He doesn't care about why Korra's scowling, or bother to ponder that frustrated scream. Her teenage tantrums aren't his concern.) ]

text

[mortemscintilla]

[ Sometime in the evening, Korra will get a message on her device. A location near the Drowning Pool. No timing, just instructions to come there. As an addendum: ]

If you have photos, bring them too.

action

[anatural]

[After that therapeutic tantrum, Korra shoved the pictures in her nightstand drawer and resolved not to think about them anymore. The rest of the day is spent training hard and achieving peace of mind through complete exhaustion.

She's getting out of the shower, about an hour before she needs to leave for work, when she gets his message. Great. She's too tired for anything more than a mild pang of hurt/jealousy/curiosity. She doesn't know what he'd want with her near the Drowning Pool, but considering today's curse is just pictures, she doubts it's anything nefarious. (She has a lot to learn.) She grabs the pictures from her nightstand, not noticing that the picture of Pai slid out and remained behind.

Riding on Naga, it doesn't take her long to get to the location.]

action

[mortemscintilla]

[ Unlike Korra, who's had a chance to simmer down, every incident through the day has served to compound Hei's frustration. Bit by bit, he can feel a jammed hinge inside him cracking open. Feel the irrational surge of rage threatening to spill out, gale-force. In the end, to preempt a cover-blowing display of temper (something that's grown more tempting -- cathartic -- in the days following Yin's departure) he's decided to expend energy with a swim. ]

[ The water is ice-cold, but it gives the sorely reined-in muscles and bones of his body permission to let go. Diving past the surface, the world disappears into murk, and the ambient noises are swallowed up by an aquatic murmur. When he finally breaks back out, he stops powering forward and flips onto his back, floating. Watches the sky darken above. Away from the city lights, the first stars are so much clearer. ]

[ (He wants to say to someone, Look. I never get tired of that. Can imagine Pai -- or maybe Amber -- floating beside him, bobbing in the tide, sometimes touching, sometimes floating away, but they'd be watching the same thing, as the water gurgled in their ears. Except Pai or Amber would never get to do those things. Not anymore.) ]

[ Hearing a rustle in the background, he cranes his neck around to see Korra arriving on Naga. Immediately, whatever tension he lost in the swim resurges. His eyes narrow, no smile, no greeting. ]

You have the pictures. [ Not an inquiry. ]

video;

[indecent_butterfly]

Tit for tat is it? And if we care not for fair trade...what then?

video; private

[mortemscintilla]

[ His flat glare is both uncommunicative yet not. ]

Then I'll play a game of Cause and Effect with you instead. [ Not the fun kind. ]

video; private

[indecent_butterfly]

Oh? How about a game of tag instead?

video; private

[mortemscintilla]

Once I tag you and you're 'It', you won't like what happens.

video // private

[candothat]

Should I destroy this picture I found of you fighting, or would you like to keep it?

video // private

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei gives Pavel a burnt glance that softens by degrees into curiosity. If it were any other time -- if he were in any other mood -- he might've cracked a half-smile at that distinctive directness. In his profession, it's practically an abnormality. Instead he says, ]

I'd have to see the picture first. [ He's been engaged in too many battles to count. (He has a photo of Pavel's too. But he doesn't volunteer the information yet. Not out of malice, but old habit.) ]

video // private

[candothat]

[The boy shrugs and presents the lens with a series of pictures.]

Probably this is unremarkable to you.

video // private

[mortemscintilla]

[ The glance he flicks at the photos is perfunctory -- on the surface. But it takes barely a moment to place that battle -- on the rooftops in Tokyo, against Wei Zhijun. (If there was ever a Contractor as irrational and reckless as Hei was ever accused of being, it was Wei.) ]

Not completely. If it's a good fight, it's in my best interests to commit the opponent and the circumstances to memory.

[ And that was a good fight, for better or worse. ]

[mightbeconcussed]

[Guess who hasn't found any pictures, but she's seen this event before. She knows what's going on.]

Embarrassing pictures out there somewhere?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei bites back the urge to snap Obvious much? Instead he takes a breath and rubs his temples. Rage has always been one of his fatal flaws. But rage can wreck his cover in the worst ways. ]

Very embarassing. [ And near-incriminating. ] I'm starting to think the Deities are in league with the paparazzi.

[mightbeconcussed]

From what I know of the paparazzi, I think it's a good guess.

[mortemscintilla]

[ He makes the Hopeful Bambi Eyes. ]

'Know of'?

You weren't movie star in your own world, were you, Miss Lucy? [ Excuse the silliness of the question. He thinks you're pretty and shiny is all. (Mostly he just wants to derail the conversation off the photos.) ]

[bookbending]

It looks like you in this picture...

[Of you strangling a girl.]

private;

[mortemscintilla]

[ Great. The 10 year old found one too. Concerned, but not showing it, Hei lets his impatience dissipate on a slow exhale. Lets 'Li's look of well-meaning concern slip into place, and says, ]

Let me see the picture, Jinora. [ His tone is mild. But it's not a request. ]

private;

[bookbending]

[She hesitates before bringing the photo into view. There's no doubt that it's Li, unless he has a twin.]

It's you.

private;

[mortemscintilla]

[ Nothing registers on Hei's face, beyond a put-upon concern -- more for Jinora than himself. But he can feel his pulse beating sharply in his temples. He doesn't respond to the It's You. His mind is already shifting gears, slipping into damage-control-mode. ]

[ In a level tone, ] Would you mind if we meet up so I can see the picture in detail, Jinora?

[dignity_misery]

[She doesn't show him what she has, just toys with it in her fingers quietly. She's still contemplating just keeping it, honestly.]

private;

[mortemscintilla]

[ He glances at her on the vid-screen, and there's nothing that betrays annoyance or even expectation when he says, ]

...What?

private;

[dignity_misery]

It's one of those days.

[When your secrets gets smeared all over the city.]

private;

[mortemscintilla]

I've noticed. [ His eyebrows takes on a shape that can't really be called a scowl, but it's close enough -- one of those facial tics that's simply Hei. ] What have you got? [ Is he butchering someone? Slapping people? Destroying property? By all means, don't hold back. ]